License Parenting - Should Parent Have Mandatory Licence, Classes, Courses For Parenthood?

You need a mandatory license to drive a car, to be a doctor, build a house, breed cattle. So why can anyone have children without the least education or parenting classes to gain actual parenting skills? Education and parenting is the most important job of all jobs. It creates humanity.

With today’s lack of supportive family networks, parents and single parents can be left with the daunting task of bringing up children without the slightest knowledge, help, experience, never mind expertise. Social services are put into place to rescue disaster but only after it is too late. The degree of neglect need not fall into any unlawful category, yet as shown in the next true scenario, things aren’t quite as they could be for little Charlie at Paul and Emma’s council house.

I pop in at my neighbours’ to return their chain saw. Paul and Emma, are a couple with a toddler named Charlie. It is eleven o´clock at night. A horror-movie is loudly blasting on TV. Next to the sofa, Charlie (18 months) is asleep in his push-chair, fully clothed. His parents’ attitude: Why disturb the little sleeping angel? Later, much later, when they themselves will go upstairs to the bedroom to retire, they will take little Charlie with them and gently plonk him into his cot.

Charlie’s head rests against the metal bar of the push chair. His face is covered in dried up mucus and chocolate, his little feet are strapped in tight socks and shoes, and, from the smell, his bottom has not been changed in a long time.

Delighted parents, Emma and Paul are not aware of Charlie’s discomfort. Neither do they seem to realise that Charlie’s subconscious little mind absorbs every signal around him. Tomorrow he will have a nappy rash and be aggressive and moody. Then Emma will shout at him: “Bad Boy!”

Toddlers cannot be “bad” as they have no notion of deliberate evil mongering like adolescents or adults. But over time, from parents telling them how bad they are, children obey and learn to become bad.

This legal form of child abuse is rampant among isolated first time parents who do not enjoy the help of more experienced members of an extended family like aunties and uncles, grandma's and sisters, close friends or relatives who can help bring up their beloved new-borns. If they had had to complete a course and pass a test in basic parenting, they would know better than to leave an unwashed, unchanged child sleeping in front of a blasting TV. They would have learned how to put a child to bed at night for an enjoyable day tomorrow.

There is a flow of fresh, outdoor air in the bedroom. The curtains are drawn.

1. Put Charlie in the bath, play with him until he wants to get out.
2. Dry him off, help him put on his pyjamas and brush his teeth.
3. Let him lead you into his bedroom where he knows you will
4. Read or tell him a story before
5. Kissing Charlie good night.

Softly coloured animated musical lights dose Charlie off to sleep.

Now Charlie knows that it is fun and safe to go to sleep. Going to sleep is something everybody does every day. Charlie now knows the difference between sleeping and being awake. It is now easier to teach the infant to respect other people when they are asleep.

Don’t get me wrong, Paul and Emma “Love Charlie To Bits!”

Every parent wants the best for their child. Maybe Paul and Emma haven’t taken the trouble to read up about bed-time routines and just follow their basic instinct? Perhaps they are just lazy and don’t care? Whatever the reason for Paul and Emma’s neglecting behaviour may be, if they had joined a basic parenting course to qualify for a mandatory Parenting License, Charlie would have had a better chance.

Some children brought up by ignorant, unemployed drug addicts and alcoholics become a greater danger to society than a badly driven car. When you apply to adopt a child you are scrutinised to the bone. So why not have a Parenting License?

Because we all know that people would never allow control over their basic right of procreation. I can already see all the “unlicensed births”, those who have no official permission to be alive because their parents didn't have a “Parenting License”. No, a mandatory Parenting License will never happen. Maybe it's just worth thinking about?

Hey ho, in the meantime, here is an alternative suggestion I came across:

Would You Make A Good Parent?

You know what they say to prospective parents? They advise people who want to have children to pass these 2 test:

1. First learn to keep a plant alive for a year in your home.
2. Then learn to look after a pup or a kitten until it reaches adulthood.

Only then, if you have passed these 2 tests in t.l.c., can you consider yourself a possible candidate for parenthood.

Diper Drive

Struggling Parents

Teen Problems

Toddlertone ( a fun video)

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Happy Parenting,

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